Surrogacy: 33 Pregnant Cambodian Women Discovered in Raid

Thirty-three pregnant Cambodian women who were carrying babies on behalf of Chinese clients have been discovered during a raid on an illegal commercial surrogacy operation, police said on Saturday.

Five people, including a Chinese manager, were arrested following raids at two apartments in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, police said.

Cambodia had been a popular international destination for infertile couples looking to have babies through commercial surrogacy even though it was made illegal in 2016.

Keo Thea, director of Phnom Penhâ€™s anti-trafficking office, told Reuters on Saturday that five people, including four Cambodian women and the male Chinese manager, had been detained during a police raid on Thursday.

â€œOur authorities have charged them with human trafficking and being intermediaries in surrogacy,â€ Keo Thea said.

The pregnant women would not face charges at the moment, he said.

â€œThey are carrying babies for Chinese nationals,â€ he said, adding that each woman was promised $10,000 for the service.

Once a woman becomes pregnant she receives $500. When the baby is delivered the terms of her agreement are that she will be paid $300 a month until the full $10,000 is paid off, Keo Thea said.

Keo Thea said the surrogacy operation had already provided about 20 babies to clients in China.

â€œSome were born in China and some were born in Cambodia,â€ Keo Thea said.

Clinics based in Asia are increasingly eyeing China, where health officials estimate that 90 million couples have become eligible to have a second child after a decades-old one-child policy was relaxed in 2015.

There are no official estimates of the number of Chinese babies delivered by surrogates, but media say it exceeds 10,000 every year.

Thailand and India have blocked foreigners from using commercial surrogacy services following a series of cases that raised concern about exploitation.

Thailand banned the practice in 2015 and subsequently several Thai clinics move across the border into Cambodia until commercial surrogacy was banned there the following year. (Reuters)

Founded on January 22, 1995, THISDAY is published by THISDAY NEWSPAPERS LTD., 35 Creek Road Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria with offices in 36 states of Nigeria , the Federal Capital Territory and around the world. It is Nigeria's most authoritative news media available on all platforms for the political, business, professional and diplomatic elite and broader middle classes while serving as the meeting point of new ideas, culture and technology for the aspirationals and millennials. The newspaper is a public trust dedicated to the pursuit of truth and reason covering a range of issues from breaking news to politics, business, the markets, the arts, sports and community to the crossroads of people and society.